Andrei Belousov noted that Western opponents in criticizing Russian approaches to preventing an arms race do not say anything new and "cling to arguments that have long been refuted"
UN, November 6. /tass/. Western countries do not support Russian initiatives in the UN on outer space for political reasons and are trying to bring their projects to the fore at their expense. This was stated to Russian journalists on Friday by Andrei Belousov, Deputy Permanent Representative of Russia to the UN office and other international organizations in Geneva, who represented Russia at meetings of the First Committee of the UN General Assembly at the headquarters of the World Organization in New York.
"Two Russian space resolutions - our traditional document on not being the first to deploy weapons in space and a new draft on further practical measures to prevent an arms race in outer space - also received a solid majority of votes in favor and were approved," the diplomat drew attention. - But, unfortunately, Western partners still take an unconstructive position with regard to these projects. Their position is mainly dictated by political considerations."
According to Belousov, Western opponents in criticizing Russian approaches to preventing an arms race, not being the first to place weapons in space and a legally binding agreement to preserve outer space free of weapons of any kind, "do not say anything new, do not give any serious arguments, cling to arguments that have long been refuted by [Russia]."
"There are no signals that in the near future Western partners will change their position and reconsider their attitude to our initiatives, will go to a substantive and really business conversation," the Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation noted.
"Moreover, we see that attempts are being made to push our initiatives into the background," the diplomat continued. - This refers to the British initiative to develop norms and rules of responsible behavior in space. We have serious questions about this initiative, the very concept of responsible behavior is unclear. We and a number of other States are afraid that this may lead to the division of States into "responsibly related to their activities in space" and "not responsibly", and the criteria for these subjective assessments are unclear." Russia is "very skeptical about this initiative," Belousov said.
